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Indian Cotton Textile Technology
Cotton-growing, spinning, and weaving techniques developed in ancient South Asia, with remains from the Indus Valley civilization and fine dyed cotto…
Timeline
- c. -500–-300Gangetic Plain · IndiaFarmers of the Gangetic Plain grew cotton while artisans spun yarn with spindles and wove on vertical looms, forming a regional production network supplying local and regional markets.
- c. -300–-100Magadha · IndiaThe unified empire promoted domestic trade and division of handicraft labor; Pataliputra and its surroundings became a distribution hub for cotton textiles, and fine cotton cloth began to be exported via northwestern trade routes.
- c. -100–1India's west coast · IndiaThe Roman Republic and Empire imported large quantities of Indian cotton cloth, with Pliny once complaining about the trade deficit; Indian cotton technology thereby became a key export industry linking South Asia with the Mediterranean world.
Sources
- Pliny the Elder, Natural History (Book VI & XII, on Indian trade) — Pliny the Elder (77)
- K.R. Subramanian, The Cotton Textile Industry in India: A Survey of Its Past and Present — K.R. Subramanian (1927)
- Romila Thapar, Early India: From the Origins to AD 1300 — Romila Thapar (2002)